From the weekly shopping list to the Ten Commandments, our lives are
shaped by lists. Whether dashed off as a quick reminder, or carefully
constructed as an inventory, this humble form of documentation provides
insight into its maker's personal habits and decision-making processes.
This is especially true for artists, whose day-to-day acts of living and
art-making overlap and inform each other. Artists' lists uncover a
host of unbeknownst motivations, attitudes, and opinions about their
work and the work of others. Lists presents almost seventy
artifacts, including "to do" lists, membership lists, lists of paintings
sold, lists of books to read, lists of appointments made and met, lists
of supplies to get, lists of places to see, and lists of people who are
"in."
At times introspective, humorous, and resolute, but always revealing and engaging, Lists
is a unique firsthand account of American cultural history that
augments the personal biographies of some of the most celebrated and
revered artists of the last two centuries. Many of the lists are
historically important, throwing a flood of light on a moment, movement,
or event; others are private, providing an intimate view of an artist's
personal life: Pablo Picasso itemized his recommendations for the
Armory Show in 1912; architect Eero Saarinen enumerated the good
qualities of the then New York Times art editor and critic Aline
Bernstein, his second wife; sculptor Alexander Calder's address book
reveals the who's who of the Parisian avant-garde in the early twentieth
century. In the hands of their creators, these artifacts become works
of art in and of themselves. Lists includes rarely seen specimens
by Vito Acconci, Leo Castelli, Joseph Cornell, Hans Hofmann, Franz
Kline, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Reginald Marsh, H. L. Mencken,
Pablo Picasso, Ad Reinhardt, Eero Saarinen, Robert Smithson, and N. C.
Wyeth.
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